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VIRGINIiV 



Agricultural aud Mechanical 



COLLEGE 



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ITS HISTORY AiND ORGANIZATION. 




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yiHGINIA 
AGRICULTURAL AND MECHAOTCAL COLLEGE. 



ITS HISTORY. 

The Congressional land scrip was disposed of by act of General As- 
sembly, approved March 19th, 1872, one-third thereof being bestowed 
on the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School, and two-thirds set 
apart for the establishment of a separate institution, to be called the 
Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, and to be located at 
Blacksburg, Montgomery county; provided the real estate belonging to 
Preston and Olin Institute be transferred without cost to the Visitors of 
the new college; and provided also the county of Montgomery should 
vote the- sum of $20,000 as an addition to the funds of the college. 

It was required in this and subsequent acts, that a Board of Visitors 
should be created, consisting of nine persons to be appointed by the 
Governor, the President of the Virginia Agricultural Society, and tlie 
members of the Board of Education ; and still further, that the Board 
of Education, acting conjointly with the Principal of the Hampton 
school, a'nd the Rector of the new college should make sale of the land 
scrip, and invest the proceeds in stocks bearing not less 'than five per 
cent, interest. 

The Governor appointed as members of the Board of Visitors, Messrs. 
D. C. DeJarnette, John Goode, Jr, J.K Anderson, W. T.'Sutherlin, 
Robert Beverly, Joseph Cloyd, W. A. Stuart, J. T. Cowan and Harvey 
Black. The first meeting of the Board was held at the Excjiange Hotel, 
Richmond, on the 25th day of March, 1872, and continued in session. 
for two days. The members present were Messrs. D. C. De Jarnette, 
John Goode, Jr., J. E. Anderson, W.- T. Sutherlin, Robert Beverly, W. 
A. Stuart, J. T. Cowan, Harvey Black, W. H. Rufifner and J. C. Taylor. 
Dr. Black was chosen Rector, and W. H. Ruffher, Secretary. ' 

A committee, consisting of Messrs. Rufifner,. Anderson and Sutherlin, 
was appointed to report a plan of organization and instruction for the 
new college, to the next' meeting of the Board. 



2 . VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

Messrs. Black, Cowan and Cloyd were appointed a committee to see 
whether a suitable farm for the use of the college could be purchased, 
and on what terms, and report at the next meeting. 

The Board adjourned on the 26th oT March, to meet at the Mont- 
gomery White Sulphur Springs on the 18th of July, at which time and 
place the trustees of Preston and Olin Institute were requested to meet 
the Board prepared to execute all proper conveyances of that property, 
provided the county of Montgomery should have complied with the pro- 
visions of the act. 

In pursuance of the resolution adopted at the session in Richmond, 
the Board convened at the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs on the 
18th of July, and continued in laborious session for three days. All 
the members were present, to wit : Messrs. Black (Rector), Governor Gr. 
0. Walker, W. H. Ruffner, Superintendent of Public Instruction, J. C. 
Taylor, Attorney-General, Lewis E. Harvie, President of the Virginia 
Agricultural Society, D. C DeJarnette, John Goode, Jr., J. R. Ander- 
son, W. T. Sutherlin, "Robert Beverly, Joseph Cloyd, W. A. Stuart and 
J. T. Cowan. 

At an early stage of the proceedings, the report of the Committee on 
Organization, which is hereafter given in full, was called for and read. 

The Executive Committee of the Virginia Agricultural Society, and 
the trustees of Preston and Olin 'Institute, who were on the ground, were 
invited to be present during the reading of this report. 

Mr. A. Phlegar, of Christiansburg, appeared as the representative of 
the Board of Supervisors of Montgomery county, and furnished evidence 
• that the county had complied with the conditions- required by the act of 
Assembly approved March 21, 3872, entitled "An act to authorize sub- 
scriptions in aid of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College 
at Blacksburg," by voting the requisite $20,000 by a large majority, 
and that said subscription would -be paid in eight equal annual install- 
ments, falling due on the 1st day of each Januaty, with accrued interest, 
beginning with January, 1873, bearing interest from July 1, 1872, and 
secured by coupon bonds. Mr. Phlegar having made a formal 'tender 
of this subscription to the Board, on motion of Mr. Goode, the subscrip- 
tion thus made and tendered was unanimously accepted as a full com- 
pliance with the conditions required by law. 

A deed of conveyance of the property of Preston and Olin Institute 
was made in due form. 

Governor Walker, as President of the Board of Education, made a 
■statement concerning the sale of land scrip, and the investment of the 
proceeds thereof, the price obtained being ninety-five cents per acre, the 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 3 

largest price obtained by any State. So much of the proceeds of tbe 
sale as had been realized were invested in Virginia State bonds. 

The 19th of July was spent .by the Board at Blacksburg, viewing the 
property of the Preston and Ohio Institute and such lands as were 
offered for sale to the college. 

There are five acres of land belonging to the institute, with a sub- 
stantial three story brick building, 100 feet by 40, containing three 
recitation rooms, a chapel, and twenty- four lodging rooms. 

Blacksburg is a small tow^n, occupying a plateau of high table land; 
it is seven miles from the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad, and 
within a few miles are the Montgomery White Sulphur Springs, the Al- 
leghany Springs, the Yellow Sulphur Springs and New Eiver Springs, 
and a number of natural objects of great interest. The scenery is pic- 
turesque, the soil of fine quality limestone land, and the climate very 
healthful at all seasons. The country around Blacksburg really belongs 
to the great Valley of Virginia, a region of the State possessed of 
boundless resources. Veins of coal of superior quality, and large bodies 
of timber, lie within easy, reach. 

Before the adjournment of the Board, a contract was made with 
Colonel Robert T. Preston for the purchase of a portion of his home 
estate, known as " Solitude," including the mansion and principal farm 
buildings, and all that part of the farm lying west thereof, supposed to 
contain two hundred and fifty acres. The tract of land. thus purchased 
is one of .great beauty and fertility, lying within one-fourth of a niile of 
the Institute building. The price to be , paid is eighty-five dollars per 
acre, and full possession will be given October 1st, 1872. A mill stream 
passes through the farm ; there is water in every field, and limestone 
and sulphur springs are convenient to the mansion. 

During the meeting of the Board, it was resolved to apply .one-tenth 
of the proceeds of the land scrip to the purchase of this farm. 

It was determined to elect annually a Treasurer, who should act also 
as Secretary "of the Faculty and Board of Visitors, Librarian, and Proc- 
tor, giving bond in the penalty of $10,000, and to receive a salary of 
$1,000 per annum. Mr. V. E. Shepherd was elected to fill these offices. 

The Board resolved to' take all needful steps to put the college in 
operation on the 1st o*f October, 1872. Instruction for the first year 
was committed to the following corps of officers : • 

1. A President, who, with the concurrence of the Executive Commit- 
tee, may app'oint an Instructor, if deemed necessary. 

2. A Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. 

3. A Professor of Mathematics and Modern Languages. 



4 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

4. A Professor of Technical Agriculture and Mechanics. 

Military Tactics to be assigned to some one of the Professors, as may- 
be agreed upon. 

The salary of the President was fixed at $2,000, and that of each 
Professor at $1,500 ; the tuition fees to be divided equally among the 
members of the Faculty, provided the addition to the income of any 
member thereof shall not exceed $500. 

The Board resolved to meet on the,,, 14th of August at the Yellow 
Sulphur Springs, for the purpose of electing Professors. The Kector 
was instructed to give notice of the fact in the Richmond and Christians- 
burg papers, and to state that changes might be made.in the assignment 
of branches of instruction to suit the wishes of the Professors who may 
be elected. 

The charges to each student -not exempted by law were fixed at 
thirty dollars for tuition, and ten dollars for college fees'. The act of 
assembly requires that the college shall give instruction free of all fees 
to as many students as there are members of the House of Delegates, 
to be selected by the school authorities of the several counties. 

A standing committee of three members, to be called the Executive 
Committee,. was appointed, whose duty it should be to have. general 
charge and oversight of the college between the .sessions of the Board, 
and to see that the regulations and orders of .the Board be duly carried 
out. Cbmmi?!fee— Messrs. Black, Stuart and Cloyd. 

This committee was instructed to naake inquiries concerning board 
and lodging for students, and report at the next meeting. 

On motion of Mr. De Jarnette, it was unanimously resolved that the 
report of the Committee oA Organization be adopted, and that two thou- 
sand copies thereof be published in pamphlet form, together with an 
abstract of the proceedings of this Board from its first' meeting to the 
close of the session to be held on the 14th of August; and the same 
committee was instructed to attend to the publication. 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. d 

PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. 

(eeport of committee.) . 
All schools may be divided into three classes : 

1. Elementary. 

2. Liberal. 

3. Technical. 

1. By Elementary, are meant schools for teaching those studies which 
•form the introduction to all other studies, and which are now adjudged 
to be indispensable to every civilized man. 

2. In Liberal schools are taught studies designed primarily to liberal- 
ize and strengthen the inind. "The old-fashioned college curriculum 
was intended to embrace the most important of these branches in such 
proportion as to produce the highest result in developing the powers of 
the student. This curriculum has not generally been retained in modern 
American colleges in its integrity, but the studies composing it are still 
retained, and they still have the weight of opinion in their favor. 

Educators have different views as to the relative value of the various 
branches of study, but all agree as to the disciplinary value of a liberal 
education. 

3. Technical schools are designed to qualify the student for some par- 
ticular vocation.. They are now very numerous, and may in time be- 
come as diversified as are human employments. They are all based 
upon the doctrine-, that there is pertaining to every pursuit a theory and 
a practice worth learning, and better learned in . schools than in active 
life. 

Schools of Law, Medicine and Theology, have long been in vogue. 
Normal Schools are becoming general. Polytechnic Schools are starting 
up everywhere, either as separate institutions, or as outgrowths from 
colleges and universities; and there will soon be schools without num- 
ber for commercial, manufacturing, mining, agricultural and mechanical 
pursuits. 

The amount of general knowledge required to profit by these special 
schools varies not only with the leading subject taught in the schools, 
but with the manner of teaching it. 

What is called a common college course, is usually regarded as an in- 
dispensable preparation for- the schools of law, medicine and theology, 
-on account of its knowledge and its gymnastic power. Itis contended, 
"with great force, that every man is the better for this liberal college 



6 . VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

education, whatever may be his ' subsequent pursuit. But it has-been 
found impossible to hold the world up to this doctrine. Simpler and 
more direct methods of education have been demanded. The establish- 
ment of the Polytechnic School, by the French government in 1794, 
marks the first great divergence from the established course of educa- 
tion. The name originally given to it, indicates the want it was de- 
signed to supply; .it was called " The Central School of Public Works," 
and was meant to supply' engineers, both civil and military. 

The style of education, known as polytechnic discards, or at least 
passes lightly over the "humanities," in the general sense, viz : lan- 
guage, rhetoric, literature, history, social and political science, psycho- 
logy and ethics ; and gives prominence to mathematics, physics, ana- 
lytical mechanics, geodesy, descriptive geometry, drawing, and modern 
languages. The general training of the mental powers forms no part 
of its purpose, but its advocates contend that its studies Ijave as fine a 
gymnastic effect as. those of the curriculum. 

The great characteristic of all forms of polytechnic education is that 
it has an objective purpose, one external to the student himself, and 
external to man as man. Its foundations are in the objective sciences ; 
its eye is upon nature, whose powers are studied that they may be 
utilized. 

. This may not be the broadest and highest style of education, and yet 
it is one of great value to society, and one which has produced men of 
immortal fame. Its influence in developing the riches, and applying the 
forces of nature for the use of man has been, and is, incalculable. There 
is an inherent reason too why a polytechnic course must be thoroughly 
mastered by the pupil : its results in practice must be exact, or they are 
worthless. Hence the rigid- drills of these schools. 

Men who are or will be educated in polytechnic schools may be divi- 
ded into two grand divisions, viz : those who handle instruments, and 
those who handle tools; or, tliose who plan, and those who execute . 

The former class may be made to include men of- capital who own 
farms and factories, but' who do no manual labor; it includes also pro- 
fessional chemists, who are employed by manufacturers in testing and 
compounding medicines, chemicals used in the arts, and manures, natu- 
ral and' artificial, in analyzing soils, food, &c., and perhaps in conducting 
systematic experiments in medical, 'agricultural and mechanical prac- 
tice ; but this grade of polytechnic students mostly become engineers. 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE, 



SCIENTIFIC ENGINEERING. 



Engineering has been defined by "Webster, " The science and the 
art of utilizing the forces and materials of nature." This definition is 
not exact, because under it might be included the chemist, the archi- 
tect, and the scientific farmer and mechanic. The radical idea of en- 
gineering is contrivance — scheming to use the forces and materials of 
nature to accomplish, a purpose. If it be contrivance to subserve mili- 
tary ends, it is military engineering ; if it be for civil purposes, it is 
civil engineering. But engineering has been sub-divided into a great num- 
ber of special branches. A beautiful diatinction is made between civil 
and mechanical engineering. The work of the civil engineer belongs to the 
department of statics ; that of the mechanical engineer to dynamics. 
The work of the former is fixed, that of the latter is moved by power. 
The former makes roads, and the latter machines : and of these we 
have other sub-divisions — mining, topographical, agricultural, hydraulic, 
steam, gas engineering, &c., &c.. 

AH these varieties of engineeriug are. learned professions, requiring 
almost as many years of laborious study as any of the other professions. 
And hence engineering in all its branches belongs properly to institu- 
tions of high grade. Whether this profession should be provided for 
by separate schools of high grade, is a question which may well engage 
the thoughts of both educators and statesmen. As a fact, however, 
colleges and universities are very generally incorporating departments 
of engineering in their courses 'of instruction. And the young men 
who pursue the engineering course are of the same class as have 
usually attended college. 

Those who -pass successfully through the engineer's course do not 
become'practical mechanics, except a small proportion of those who study 
mechanical engineering. A few of these go into the workshops, and 
rise to fine positions as master workmen. This number may increase. 
Whilst the scholarly training of these engineers will nncline them to 
the departments of mere designing and general superintendence of con- 
struction, the increasingly high wages now given to accomplished work- 
men may incline men of polytechnic education to exchange the pencil 
for the chisel. Should this tendency increase, independent polytechnic 
schools of high grade will become a necessity ; not only because literary 
institutions cannot be expected to provide the necessary machinery for 
practice, but because there would then be a growing incompatibility 
between the dominant ideas belonging to the two forms of education. 
The enforced conjunction of incongruous systems of education 



S VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

must end in the destruction of the weaker. Every successful school 
must have an idiosyncracy — a life of its own — into which everything 
about it is absorbed. 

But as long as the engineer handles instruments, and not tools, his 
education may be made to harmonize with that of the other learned pro- 
fessions; and hence be successfully pursued in colleges and universities. 
It is, howevever an education for the few and not for the many. A 
very small corps of engineers will keep busy at work an army of con- 
tractors, master workmen, miners, journeymen and common laborers. 
The engineer will plan the iron bridge, but he will not toil in the ore 
bank, the furnace, the foundry, or the machine shop. The mining en- 
gineer will survey the mineral land, test the quality of the mineral, 
indicate the place for drifts and shaffs, provide for drainage and pure 
air ; but the whole work of developing the mine is done by other hands 
than his. 

Now it is easy to perceive that if the engineer needs to be an accom- 
plished scholar, the man who stands next below him ought not to be an 
ignoramus. If the man who makes the picture of a bridge needs an educa- 
tion, the man who makes the bridge itself needs an education also. The 
builder may not need so much learning as the planner, but he does need 
some of the same sort of learning in order to execute the work intelli- 
gently. He has his plans and calculations to make; he needs to under- 
stand' the nature of the materials he is to work up, and the principles 
on which they are to be built together./ And through all the processes 
of working- up the various crude materials into their final shape there 
is needed a skill and an intelligence beyond what can be learned in the 
shop. 

The want of some special provision for the practical classes first 
found . expression about the middle of the last century in the Real 
Schools of Germany, and from that time to this the idea has been gain- 
ing, and has been embodied in a variety of forms, that special schools 
are needed for mechanics, farmers, and traders for the same reason that 
they are needed for lawyers, doctors and engineers. Hence, besides 
the high grade schools, there are in Europe schools suited to the special 
wants of almost every class of people. The effect of these special 
schools in promoting national prosperity is prodigious. 

MECHANICAL SCHOOLS. 

Hoyt, in his valuable Report on Education in Europe, states that 
nothing could be more evident at the Paris Exposition in 1867, than 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. d 

the fact that those countries which had established special schools for 
the mechanic arts excelled all others in the mechanical products result- 
ing from such special training. 

As early as the latter part of the last century, artisan schools began 
to spring up in many parts of France and Belgium, and in some other 
countries — schools for instruction in the arts of engraving,- coloring, dye- 
ing, of the making of astronomical instruments, stone-cutting and glass- 
making, of the working. of metals into every variety of form — schools 
likewise of various grades for instruction in the principles and practice 
of the more complex and comprehensive arts of mining, engineering, 
agriculture, '&c. — and to-day it is undeniable that in nearly all the 
branches of industry named, (in every one, Hoyt affirms,) those coun- 
tries are the acknowledged leaders of all others. Similar schools have 
sprung up by the thousand in Prussia, Switzerland, Holland, and all 
the German States, and are exhibiting results similar to those of France 
and Belgium. 

These results can be spoken of with confidence, inasmuch as they 
were thordughly tested at the different World's Fairs which have been 
held, and particularly at the Paris Exposition of 1867. These results 
have been studied by intelligent practical men, and are shown to be 
directly connected as cause and effect with the general intelligence and 
special training of the workmen who produced the fabrics. This whole 
matter was the subject of one of the most remarkable investigations pf 
modern times — one made by order of the Parliament of England. The 
results of this investigation are noticed at some length in the annual 
report of the Si:iperintendent of Public Instruction for 1871; but it is 
proper in this connection to repeat a few of the leading facts and quota- 
tions there presented, with some not therein adduced. In 1851, Eng- 
land had surpassed all competitors at 'the World's Fair held m London 
in nearly every department. Sixteen years later, superiority was ad- 
judged to her in only ten of a hundred of the departments; in other 
words, she was beaten in ninety out of every hundred of articles exhi- 
bited. As the result of this terrible defeat, the kingdom was convulsed, 
and this investigating commission was appointed. The testimonies were 
almost unanimous to the effect that the superiority of the continental 
workmen was owing to their general and special training. 

J. Scott Russell, F. R. S., says: 

"Asa juror in the Paris Exposition, I have come to the conclusion that the 
higher class of education given in each of those countries to the workmen in its 
skilled trades, as well as the superior professional education giveq to the higher 



10 VIRGINIA "AGRICULTURAL AND 

classes of men employed in technical professions, is everywhere visibl^e in the works 
exhibited by those countries, and I attribute the surprising strides those countries 
have been making in the last ten years iu many of the great staple branches of 
me6hanical construction and manufacture to the admirable scientific and practical 
training which the governments of those countries provide for their working 



A. J. Mundella, managing partner in a hosiery firm employing five 
thousand operatives, says : 

" While I believe the English workman is possessed of greater natural capacity 
than any of his foreign competitors, I am of opinion that he is gradually losing the 
race through the superior intelligence "which foreign governments are carefully 
developing in their artisans." 

James Young, Esq. (Chemical Works) says: 

"The reason for this increased rate of progress is the excellent system of tech- 
nical education given to the masters of work-shops, sub managers, foremen, and 
even workmen." • . 

Mr. Scott Russell adds: 

" We find that some nations have gone so far as to have established in every 
considerable town technical schools for the purpose of teaching to the youth to be 
craftsmen, those branches of science which relate most nearly to their future craft.. 

" Workers in metal are taught the nature- of the mechanical powers .with which 
they will have to work, and the mechanical properties of the materials they will have 
to operate. upon; engine builders are taught the principles of heat and steam, and 
the nature of the engines they will have to make and work : ship builders are 
taught the laws of construction, 'hydraulics, and hydrostatics: and dyers and 
painters are taught the laws of chemistry and color. All skilled youth are taught 
geometry, drawing, and calculation:- and in many countries, every youth who 
shows great talent in any department is promoted to a higher traijnirig school and 
there. educated at the public cost. Beside these local schools, other countries have 
technical colleges of a very high class .for th.e education of masters, and foremen in 
engineiering, m-echanics, merchandise, and other practical and technical profes- 
sions. ■ 

" We have not failed to notice that it is precisely those nations which have been 
systematically giving a course of preparatory training and education to their 
population in their skilled trades that have shown the most marked progress in 
national industry in these successive exhibitions. Prussia, Switzerland, Belgium, 
France and Amenca, seem to make progress in proportion to their excellence of 
educational training. 

" Prussia in steel, iron and general engineering work ; Switzerland in scientific 
engineering, machinery, and watch and telegraph work, and in textile manufac- 
tures; Belgium in metal working and mechanical trades; France in metal work. 
and in steam engines, engineering structure, naval architecture and steam naviga- 
tion. All these nations seem to exhibit growing skill and progress in proportion 
to the excellence of the education they give to their manufacturing population." 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. * tl 

Quotations to the same effect might be multiplied indefinitely. The 
result of the discussion and investigation in England was the speedy 
establishment of ^ public free school system of education for the masses, 
and of industrial schools for special branches in many places. At a 
great public meeting held in England, the following resolutions were 
adopted : 

"That fo establish and maintain a system of technical education adapted to the 
requirements of arts, manufactures and commerce in the United Kingdom, the 
three following educational reforms should be effected: 

1. In the universities, grammar schools, and other educational institutions for 
the upper and middle classes, instruction in science and art should be placed on the 
same footing as other studies. 

2. EfiBcient means of primary and secondary education should be brought within 
the means of the working classes everywhere. 

3. Technical institutions for special instructjon, adapted to the wants of the va- 
rious classes of society, and to the industries of the country, should be established 
and maintained in the United Kingdom. 

With rega^-d to these practical schools, which are becoming so promi^ 
nent in the policy. of more advanced countries, some of them are mere 
schools of apprenticeship in single branches of manufacture. The 
most of them combine with practice instruction in those branches of 
mathematics and physical science which bear directly upon the special 
industry, whilst others -add studies designed to give general information 
and to liberalize the minds of the pupils. Of this latter class, there are 
schools known by the title of "Schools of Arts and Trades." One of 
the earliest founded and most famous of these schools of arts and 
trades is in Moscow, Russia: 

"The entire'course of study, occupies five years, but is so divided into^first, 
a theoretical and practical course (elementary in character) which embraces three 
years: and secondly, ^a special superior course of two years, that many young men, 
already qualified to enter. the second division.may then fit themselves for practical 
business in two years. The instruction is given by fourteen Professors in the 
theoretical departments, assisted by a competent force of practical mechanics and 
technologists in the workshops and laboratories, which are both numerous and 
extensive. The five principal workshops — a foundery, forges, shops for setting up 
machinery, the finishing shop, and the model room — are provided with lathes for 
wood and metals, powerful machines for cutting up the various materials, trip- 
hammers, and various tools and machines driven by steam, so that the pupils, 
working by classes and in harmony with the educational plan of the institution, 
are enabled, by their own manufacture, to fill orders to the average amount of 
$40,000 per annum, thus returning to the treasury a part of the $100,000 an- 
nually expended for the support of the institution. The .school includes, besides, 
these several workshops, a very large laboratory for technological operations and 



12 ' VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

for chemical analysis — a museum of models and of mechanical and technological 
apparatus — collections of raw materials used in manufacture, a geological and 
mineralogical museum, and a valuable scientific and technical library, comprising 
several thousand volumes." — (Hoyt.) 

France has appreciated this class of schools more than she has uni- 
versal elementary education. ^ As Virginia did v^^ith regard to the views 
of Jefferson, so did France with regard to the enlightened views of her 
Great Napoleon, viz : adopted fragments of his system of education. 
Under the influence of Napoleon these "schools of arts and trades" at 
Ohalons sur Marne, Angers and Aix, were established for the purpose 
of furnishing to the country educated and skilled chiefs and foremen of 
workshops in the several branches of the useful arts, and these schools 
have been and are centres of important influence upon the industries of 
France. The three receive annually about two hundred thousand dol- 
lars from the public treasury. Besides suitable literary instruction, 
practical actual service is required of the pupils at the forge, in the 
foundery and various workshops. . There is also a celebrated school of 
this character at Lyons. In all four of these schools the course of in- 
struction occupies three years. These high grade Artisan Schools are 
multiplying in Germany, Belgium, Holland, England, the Scandinavian 
States, and indeed all portions of Europe. 

In Germany there is a peculiar class of schools known as " Building 
Schools," which are held only in the winter, for the benefit of mechanics 
whose work cannot be carried on at that season of the year. There is 
a boarding school of this class at Holzminden, in- Brunswick,' with ac- 
commodations for five hundred pupils, and the establishment is usually 
crowded. The cost of boarding and lodging for the five months' term 
is l^ss than $20 ; charges for tuition, fire and light, washing, medical 
attendance, and all requisite material for writing and drawing, about. 
$33 ; total expenses of the term ''^53. 

In Nienburg, in Hanoverian Prussia, is a similar school, with fifteen 
professors and some two hundred pupils, including machinists and mill- 
wrights, masons, carpenters and joiners, cabinet makers and lock- 
smiths, as well as builders proper. 

Besides the schools intended to improve the ordinary mechanic arts, 
and besides a great number of artisan associations for 'mutual improve- 
ment, there is an important class of schools which, in Europe, are called 
" Schools of Applied Art," and in this country are called " Schools of 
Design.". The art of drawing constitutes the chief feature in these 
schools, and the object is to create designs, which are needed in endless 



. MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 18- 

number and variety in connection with almost every mechanical and 
manufacturing industry. 

The artistic French first made a specialty of this form of industry, 
and in consequence thereof surpassed all nations in the beautiful designs 
exhibited on their ornaments and fabrics of every description. But in 
time the Germans, Swiss, Russians and English established similar 
schools, and now they are to be found in almost every city of Europe, 
as well as in many of the chief cities of America. The School of De- 
sign at South Kensington, England, has become one of. the most famous 
of the world. 

There is another class of schools found in Europe which is worthy of 
special mention. These are attached to great manufactories, and are 
designed to educate and train workmen for those factories. A striking 
example is to be found at Creuzot, France, in connection with the great 
smelting, mining, locomotive, and other machine building establishment 
lately conducted by M. Schneider — an establishment which has been 
distancing all competitors, and has of late been furnishing locomotives 
even for English railways. The following account of this gigantic con- 
cern, and a similar one in Germany, is quoted from the Edmburg Re- 
view of April 1868. 

" The works of Schneider, at Creuzot, cover three hundred acres. The work- 
shops and forges occupy fifty acres. The iron works annually produce more than 
one thousand tons of iron, in addition to machinery, locomotives, iron bridges and 
viaducts, iron gun boats and war steamers, of tlie average annual value of 
£600,000. Nearly ten thousand work peof)le receive wages, which amount to 
£370,000 per annum, and most of these dwell in and around the town of Creuzot. 
These steam engines are equal to a duty of nearly ten thousand horse-power, and 
the new forge is contained under a single roof of thirteen hundred feet in length, 
and three hundred and ten in width. 

" No other single forge can- be mentioned of equal dimensions. There are valuable 
coal and iron mines on the estate, which yield annually two hundred and fifty 
thousand tons of coal and three hundred thousand tons of iron ore, besides which 
about three hundred thousand tons of coal and one hundred and twenty thousand 
tons of ore are purchased. Our present interest is in the personnel of this great 
establishment, a very large proportion of which was born, or has been -trained 
on the spot. It is due principally to a system of education, dating as far back as 
1841, that a highly skilled body of workmen, engineers and accountants has been 
formed; and although the system has b^en termed elementary, it will be found to 
be really in part special or technical. The course which is open to all pupils of 
sufficient capacity, extends over no less than nine years, and includes advanced 
instruction in French, Literature, History, Natural Philosophy, Geography, the 
Chemistry of metals, Geometry, mechanical and free-hand drawing, and modeling. 
Promising boys are sent to higher technical schools elsewljere. No boy is admitted 
to the works who cannot read and write, or who has been dismissed from the school 



14 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

for misbehavior. The fruits of this educational system are observable in the ac- 
tivity, extent and perfect discipline of the work. 

" In walking through the sheds with Mr. Samuelson. where several pairs of 
marine engines were in course of erection, Mons. Schneider told -his visitor that 
there was not a man among the mechanics employed in that department who could 
not make an accurate drawing of the work in which he was engaged. 

" In fifteen years, lelonies, only twenty-three ; annual misdemeanors, forty ; 
policemen, three. 

" Krupp & Company, at Essen, consume eight hundred to one thousand tons of 
coal every casting day, raised "from pits within the walls of the works, employ 
nearly eight thousand men, and produce sixty thousand tons of steel annually, 
more than twice the whole export of steel of the United Kingdom. At the out- 
break of the war one thousand: of the laen were called under arms, but two hun- 
dred and fifty of them were returned lest the manufacture of cannon should be 
stopped. All the heads of the technical departments are pupils of the various schools 
of Oermany.^' 

"With regard to the practical schools which have been noticed above, 
it may be remarked that some of them are maintained wholly, .and 
others in part, from the public treasury. Many such schools, however, 
have been founded and supported by private liberality, and a large 
number by philanthropic societies. • In Belgium, practical schools have 
been liiade use of by the governmentas an important means of elevating 
the lowest class of her population. And in America, the reform schools 
which are springing up in our large cities for both males and females 
nearly all include instruction and practice in industrial arts. In Europe 
there are many industrial schools designed for the especial benefit of 
females, and such schools are multiplying in America. In Boston the 
art of sewing has been introduced into the public free schools. 

It does not fall in with the drift of this report to notice particularly 
the' higher forms. of technical education*, whether found in independent 
special schools, in polyteohnic institutions, or in colleges and universi- 
ties. As remarked heretofore, these higher grades of technical educa- 
tion are intended to make analytic and technological chemists, scientific 
agriculturists, veterinary surgeons, professional architects, and engineers 
of the many kinds already alluded to: Schools of this sort are scattered 
abundantly over Europe and America. It will be seen presently that 
vpe have in Virginia quite a number of institutions supplying the means 
for this higher technological education. 

AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 

A few chairs of agriculture were attempted in France toward the 
the close of the last century ; but the first separate schools were in. the 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 15 

same year (1799) established in Prussia, Switzerland and Austria. 
These schools all had a moderately successful career. The Swiss school 
was established by a nobleman on his estate at Hofwyl, and for fifty 
years w^as remarkably successful, and it was the model on which hun- 
dred of similar institutions were, organized. The Austrian- school was 
established on an estate of 300,000 acres, and still holds a place among 
the foremost. The Austrian government was so gratified with the ex- 
periment that it has continued to multiply its agricultural . schools, 
until it now has forty. 

Prussia has more than fifty agricultural schools of different grades, 
besides a great number of small experimental farms, or stations. Of 
all these schools, only some eight or nine are of high grade, and these 
are more or less intimately connected with universities. Frawice has a 
number of separate agricultural schools. Saxony has five agricultural 
schools and departments ; Bavaria has twelve ; Belgium ten or twelve ; 
Baden six; several of the Duchies, especially Saxe-Weimar, make 
liberal provision for agricultural .education, and have among them about 
thirty schools. • Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Spain^ and Portugal, and 
even Greece and Turkey, have all recognized the importance of these 
institutions, and are bringing them into existence. England has 
m'ade some effort in the same direction, but without much success; 
Scotland is making a beginning. Ireland has been more fortunate. 
For forty-five years she has had a flourishing farmers' school with 
two hundred acres of land attached. In 1838, another school was es- 
tablished (near Dublin), which is a sort" of a normal agricultural school. 
Ireland has now about seventy agricultural schools. 

Eussia embraced the idea of special agricultural education in 1824, 
and now h^s a very large number of agriculiural schools of various grades. 
The most of these are free, and are supported by the government, with an- 
nuities ranging from eight thousand to a hundred thousand dollars. They 
have on an average from a hundred, to a hundred and fifty pupils — 
one of them four hundred and fifty. No expense has been spared to 
give these schools the highest efiiciency. 

There are two agricultural schools in Europe which may be specially, 
noticed — the one at Geisberg, near Wiesbaden, in Nassau ; the other at 
Hohenheim in Wiirtemberg. 

We are indebted to Prof. Grabowskie of Preston and Olin Institute, 
for the following account of the Geisberg school ; which we have con- 
densed : 

Formerly the sessions of this school continued most of the year ; but 
now continue only during the winter — the summer months being left 



16 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

for practice on farms. The change was made for the accommodation ot 
small farmers who required the services of their sons at home during the- 
summer months. Other students labored on farms during the summer as 
apprentices, or under 'special arrangements. The students, on returning 
to^ the school in the autumn, are required to give an account in writing 
of their summer labors, and of the farm- on. which they were employed. 
There is no farm -practice during the winter. Pupils may enter the 
Geisburg school directly from the public elementary school ; but they 
not unfrequently come from the Real and mechanical schools, and even 
from the Gymnasia, Polytechnic schools, and universities. Instruction is 
given by lectures of a very simple character, copiously illustrated, and 
by excursions. The entire course has direct practical bearings, the' 
subjects being pruned of irrelevant and less important matters. The 
institution' is highly ' esteemed, especially by farrners. The regular 
course is completed in two winters. It consists of the lower mathemat- 
ics, with surveying, levelling, and drawing, mineralogy and geology, 
botany, zoology, human anatomy and physiology, and comparative 
anatomy, physics with meteorology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology 
of domestic animals, veterinary pathology, therapeutics and obstetrics, 
agronomy, implements and machines, plant and meadow culture, drain- 
age, stock-raising, agricultural economy, book-keeping, political econo- 
my, gardening and agricultural technology -and architecture. It is fur- 
nished on a liberal scale with appropriate illustrative collections. 

The following account of the agricultural school at Hohenheim, near 
Stuttgart, Wiirtemberg, is taken almost verhatim from Hoyt's Report. 

The vast buildings occupy .a high swell of ground, commanding one 
of the most extensive and beautiful views in Germany. The farm em- 
braces between eight and .nine hundred acres, and adjoins a government 
forest of five thousand acres. It is conducted on the basis of a scientific 
rotation of crops, serving the double purpose of a model and experi- 
mental farm. About twenty acres are set apart for experimental pur- 
poses, and are under the special charge, of the Professor of Agricultural 
Chemistry. There is also a botanical garden of "several acres, in which 
are grown all sorts of plants possible to the climate and soil of the loca- 
tion. Connected with the institution are a beet sugar factory,, a brew- 
ery, a distillery, a starch factory, a yinegar factory, a malting and fruit 
drying establishment, a silk worm establishment, and an agricultural 
implement and machine factory. The best agricultural implements and 
machines used in Germany are made at this establishment. 

The institution at Hohenheim, or the Royal Academy, as it is called, 
consists really, of three distinct schools, to wit: 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 17 

1. The Institute, having the character and rank of a professional 
school of agriculture. 

2. Tine school of forestry. 

3. The school of practical farming. 

The institute and school of forestry were designed for the sons of the 
gentry, fitting themselves for the general management of inherited 
estates, or ambitious young men from the middle classes, looking to a 
stewardship over large estates. These students pursue a two years' 
•course of study in agriculture and forestry, supported by mathematics, 
natural history and physical science. Tuition fees are charged in these 
higher departments, whilst the schools of practical farming and horti- 
culture are .supported entirely by the government. 

The school of practical farming is designed for the sons of working 
farmers, who desire simply to acquire a knowledge of the general prin- 
ciples of agriculture, and the most approved 'practical methods of farm- 
ing. They spend but two or three hours daily in gaining theoretical 
and scientific knowledge, and' the remainder i"n actual labor on the farm 
arid in the other practical branches of the academy, under the direction 
■ of foremen and managers. 

Besides these three distinct br.anches or departments, there are sever 
ral special- courses or schools designed to give instruction in the princi- 
ples, and especially in the practice of diflPerent branches of industry. 
There is a special course in vacation for the instruction of school teachers. 

The instruction is given by the Director and twelve other Professors. 
Among the departments we find ode of political economy ; one of rural 
architecture, and gne of drawing. All the. branches of general agri- 
culture, and plant culture, meadow culture, vine and fruit culture, the 
breeding of domestic animals, dairying, silk worm and bee culture, 
forestry, &c., are taught by lectures, by demonstrations, by excursions, 
and by actual manipulations. The scientific course consists of instruc- 
tion in arithmetic and algebra, planeometry, stereometry, trigonometry, 
practical geometry, mechanics, taxation; book-keeping, physics, chemis- 
try in all its branches, geognosy, botany, zoology, veterinary science, 
economical architecture, principles of law, and national economy. Be- 
sides these, there are special courses in forestry. 

This academy, as may be seen, occupies a very wide field. It was 
established in 1817 by the agricultural society of Wiirtemberg, under 
the patronage of the king — has now had a successful career of sixty- 
five years, and by its great usefulness to the State, has acquired a 
•marked influence, not only in the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, but in all 
the countries of Europe. 
.2 



18 * VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND • 

Concerning all these agricultural schools, it should be remarked that 
their courses of study vaxy from two to four years ; the student's ex- 
penses also vary. The most of the schools are supported by govern- 
ment, and they' are entirely free, or charge very moderate fees. Some 
furnish board and books free, as well as tuition; and at at least one 
school (in Russia) the pupil, in addition to all this, receives a sum of 
money for general purposes. • . 

AGRICULTUEAL EDUCATION IN AMEEICA. 

It is only eighteen years since the first agricultural college was estab- 
lished in the United States, and as yet there are very few settled ideas 
in the country on the subject of agricultural education. No doubt the 
reason of this late beginning, and of these unsettled views, is to-be 
found in the vast tracts of fresh and fertile lands, which were ever open 
to the settler at a trifling cost. In 1855, Michigan launched an agricul- 
tural college on a farm of six hundred and seventy-six acres of land. 
This example was in a short time followed by New York, Maryland 
and Pennsylvania. These States soon learned one thing about agricul- 
tural colleges, viz : that they are very expensive affairs, especially when 
they set out with a liberal programme. 

Oat of this discovery grew the movement in congress, which ended 
in the act of 1862, by which nearly ten million acres of public lands 
were divided among the States to aid in agricultural and mechanical 
education. In every State there was a grand scramble 'for the land 
' scrip among colleges in esse and in posse ; and the results of the strug- 
gle were various. According to the list given by Greneral Eaton in his 
report for 1871, sixteen States connected the land' grant with colleges 
or universities, twelve with separate, special colleges, and nine had not 
acted. Some of the universities which received the grant, were created 
in part out of this fund, and are polytechnic in character, and in nearly 
every case*the congressional funds are held in separate trust, in order 
that they may not be diverted to classical or literary studies. These 
institutions all profess to use the funds for teaching the applications of 
science to industry, and some of them recognize the wants of those who 
are to labor with their hands on farms and in workshops. Buftechni- 
cal education in America is having the same history that general educa- 
tion has had in all ages. The rich and influential classes are first and 
most liberally provided for, whilst the toiling masses are comparatively 
neglected. In former ages the masses were neglected by the ruling 
classes, because they were despised, and were not regarded as fit sub- 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 19 

jects for education. This feeling is. rapidly passing away, and e very- 
enlightened government now recognizes the fact, that national aggran- 
dizement is more dependent npon the education of the people than upon 
all other causes combined. And, as shown in a former part of this re- 
port, European nations include in this the technical as well as elemen- 
tary education of the people. But one who studies the American tech- 
nical schools will see that they are cast principally for the higher grades 
of students. The reason of this may in part be, that public sentiment, 
on the subject is largely controlled by scholarly men, whose tastes re- 
volt at narrow and short courses of study, and who cannot let go the 
traditional doctrine that the best way to enlighten popular ignorance is 
by means of constellations overhead. Another reason is, that working 
people have not hitherto demanded technical education, as they will do 
ere long. It requires special effort and time to inspire practical men 
generally with a respect for scientific schools, and a desire- to learn the 
results of science by systematic practice. 

But the present in America is a time of experiment and discussion in 
this field, and our people will not long remain in rear of other nations 
in regard to any kind of schools. 

CLASSIFICATION OF AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 

The various forms of agricultural education might be classified as 
follows : 1. Didactic: 2. Practical. 3-. Combined. 4. Progressive. 

1. Under the head of didactic may be included all schools which 
require no manual operations, from the student. There is a simple 
teaching of the theory and practice of agriculture, with cognate branches 
by means of text-books, lectures and lecture-room illustrations, with, in 
some cases, opportunities more or less extensive of observing agricultural 
operations. There is no effort to improve the student in manual dex- 
terrty, farm management, or general business habits. These he is 
expected to know beforehand, or to acquire elsewhere as he may have 
opportunity. 

This is the sort of education usually given at colleges and universi- 
ties which have agricultural departments. Among the best of its class 
in America may be mentioned the agricultural department of the Shef- 
field scientific school connected with Yale College. Among the European 
schools of this class, those of Halle, Jena and Gottingen are the most 
celebrated ; though these partake of the Progressive, as well as the 
Didactic character. 

2. Schools of. agriculture which are Jiere called Practical are such as 



20 VIRaiNIA AGRICULTtlRAL AND 

are known in Europe as farm schools.. Manual labor, or actual practice' 
■with tools on a farm under supervision, constitutes the bulk of the 
course. Two or three hours a day are spent in study, the rest m labor; 
but the labor is performed under the direction of skillful managers, who- 
are constantly giving instruction by precept and example. 

This class of schools is Silmost unknown in America, but is common 
in Europe. The Swiss school at Hofwyl was the prototype of this class. 
These schools have generally had a charitable intent. Count Fellen- 
berg, who establishecf the Hofwyl school on his own estate, had in view 
the improvement of the sons of the j^easantry, who thus might gain a 
practical knowledge of the most improved methods of .agriculture, and 
also some acquaintance with the scientific principles involved therein^ 

3. Combined schools are, as the name imports, schools in which theory 
and practice are combined. There are institutions in'Europe in which 
one season of the year is wholly given to study, and another season 
wholly to labor or excursions. As for example the Russian school at 
Lesnoy near St. Petersburg, as well as the school at Geisberg, which 
has been noticed. In other institutions there are practical classes en- 
gaged chiefly in labor, and studying classes engaged chiefly in study, as 
at Hohenheim. But in the majority of well-equipped schools, the' 
didactic elements predominate, whilst only from ten to twenty hours a 
week are spent in manual exercises. The Massachusetts Agricultural 
College is a good example .of this class ; and Cornell is a young giant 
who is destined to amaze the World with such a combination of erudi- 
tion and handicraft. as has never been seen; but as he gets older he may 
grow less practical. 

4. Under the term Progressive may be included those forms of agri- 
cultural instruction which are designed to prepare students for original 
investigation. The teaching is carried on largely by means of analysis 
and experiment. Baron Liebig is the most distinguished exponent of 
the sort of teaching and investigation here referred to. Largely owing 
to his influence, universities.- have engrafted this feature upon their 
courses, and what are called experimental stations have been established 
by governments, and are rapidly multiplying all over. Europe. In con- 
nection with these stations, and with some of the higher universities^ 
the-re are extensive chemical and physical, laboratories, and even collec- 
tions of domestic animals, with all needed facilities for studying phj'sio-: 
logical- problems. The agricultural experiments are usually conducted 
on a lew acres of land, from twelve to twenty, and here are studied 
those fundamental principles which underlie all successful practice, and 
out of the knowledge of which will grow agricultural advancement. 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE, 21 

AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES. 

Having considered these two classes of colleges separately, it. now 
becomes necessary to consider them together. In so doing, we must 
discard all classifications heretofore made, and form a new classification 
which shall not be too minute in its sub-divisions, and shall be equally 
adapted to the two grand divisions of the subject. The grades in the 
•classification should represent corresponding schools. No doubt these 
grades will become more numerous as schools' become more special in 
their character ; but for the present in our State it will be suffit'ient to 
divide combined agricultural and mechanical education into three 
grades or classes, representing the wants of three grand divisions of our 
population. 

Fb'st Class.^Ln this class we would place schools for training Engi- 
neers of all sorts. Architects, Chemical Technologists, Manufacturers and 
Scientific Teachers, Investigators and Explorers. These belong to the 
Mechanical and Technological department. For the agricultural- 
branches, schools of this class would educate analytical chemists, agri- 
•cultural j^i'ofessors and experimenters, veterinary surgeons, and such 
agriculturists as desire a thorough scientific knowledge, including, as of 
necessity it does, almost the entire circle of physical sciences, besides 
studies of an abstract and literary character. 

This grade of agricultural and mechanical education belongs naturally 
to the highest class of literary and polytechnic institutions; and on this 
grade must we depend for the most valuable, but not the most immedi- 
ately available results. 

Second Class. — This cla§s of schools should aim to meet the needs of 
farmers and mechanics who expect to continue in their vocations. Of 
course the great mass of these are neither able, nor anxious, to pursue 
an extensive or protracted course of study ; but the experience of other 
countries, and to some' extent of our own, has abundantly shown that 
there is a considerable and a constantly increasing proportion of ordi- 
nary farmers and mechanics who have a desire to know something of 
the scientific principles underlying their vocations, to learii the results 
of scientific experiment, and become acquainted with the most approved 
methods, implements and machines pertaining to their pursuits. This 
is the population who are provided for by the most of the agricultural 
and artisan schools of Europe, and this is the grade of education which 
has produced such telling results in advancing the interests of the 
<;ontinental nations. 

3d. The third class- consists of schools of practice simply, or chiefly, 



ZZ VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

and will usually be connected witli the reform or eleemosynary opera- 
tions. But the example" of Hohenheim shows that an almost purely 
practical department may be connected with schools of higher grade. 
We have at length reached the question — 

WHAT SORT OF SCHOOL SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED AT BLACKSBUEG ? 

1. Let us first look at the terms of the grant. The act of congress 
uses the following language concerning the proceeds of the land scrip. 
They " shall be inviolably appropriated by each State which may take 
and claim the benefit of this act to the endowment, support and main- 
tenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, with- 
out excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including mili- 
tary tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agri- 
culture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the 
States may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and 
professions of life." ' • 

The State law disposing of the fund uses nearly the same language. 

It will be observed that this fund is to be used not for the benefit of 
all classes, but of certain classes which are specified, and are denomi- 
nated ^' ihe industrial classes;'' and that these are to be benefitted, not 
in some remote and- indirect way, but by the actual education of the 
people belonging to these classes. 

Now who are the industrial classes ? They are the men who carry 
on the industries of the country. This w^ord industries, when used in 
a concrete sense, has acquired a technical meaning, and refers to the 
physical or material operations of the country — those which change the 
form of crude materials. The industrial classes then are not the bank- 
ers, capitalists, merchants, or men belonging to the learned professions, 
but they are the men who handle tools, the men of the field, the mine, 
and the workshop. That these are the men referred to is evident from 
the character of the branches required to be taught ; they are the 
branches suited to enlighten farmers and mechanics. 

But it is not required that the sort of education provided for these 
industrial classes shall be a mere apprenticeship, a mere matter of tools 
prefaced by the "three R's." It can be as liberal in its provisions as 
may be desired ; it Tuust include those branches of liberal and scientific 
study which have practical applications. Practice is to be reached 
through science. 

The classes to be provided for, and the studies required, clearly indi* 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 23 

cat-e tliat the style of school required is one of applied science — a tech- 
nical school, as distinguished from a liberal school — a technical school, 
with liberal appendages .if you choose, but still a technical school. 
There will be little danger of erring as to the character of the school 
if the fact is recognized that the ultimate object aimed at is the imme- 
diate utilization of science for the development of the material resources 
of the country, 

2. In order that any institution may be made available for the in- 
dustrial classes, its costs and charges of every sort must be small, other- 
wise a very small proportion will be benefited. The -earnings of the 
industrial classes beyond their necessary expenses are very small, parti- 
cularly in our State at this time. Very few working farmers or me- 
chanics can afford to pay from four to six hundred dollars a year for the 
support and education of each son. 

3. The new college ought to trench as little as possible upon ground 
welloccupied by institutions already existing in the State. Even if it 
would not be a perversion of the fund to use it for the establishment of 
an ordinary classical college, it would certainly be very bad economy to 
do so, as well as very unjust to such as are already established and 
doing good service. Sadly have our people already erred in the undue 
multiplication of colleges. What richly endowed and splendidly equip- 
ped institutions .we might have had if the funds distributed among our 
nine colleges had been concentrated on' half the number. The true 
friend of education will seek to abate the evil rather than aggravate it. 

If -our funds can be applied in providing forms of education different' 
from any provided in our existing institutions it would seem manifestly 
wise so to employ them. The review which has been made in this re- 
port of industrial, education in other States and countries, taken in con- 
nection with our own condition, seems plainly to show that there is not 
only room, but ai^rying demand, for a diflPerent school from any we now 
possess. 

The principles which have been laid down will exclude the various 
engineering courses from the new college. Whilst the engineer stands 
next above the industrial classes, he does not belong to them. More- 
over, his wants are abundantly provided for in the colleges, military 
institute, and universities of the State, many of which have full and 
special courses of engineering. The general principles of engineering 
must be taught in the new college, with special application to farm 
roads, bridges and draining, with something of surveying and mining, 
and a good deal of motors and mechanical powers, but to provide a 



24 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

complete set of professional engineering courses would of itself absorb 
all the funds of the institution. 

Similar remarks apply to architecture. Something must of course be . 
taught of building and building materials — something of the laws of 
proportion and ornamentation, and something of the different orders of . 
architecture ; but the professional architect needs a much fuller and 
deeper knowledge of all these things than the builder, and he needs 
something above and beyond this. He needs a mind highly cultured 
by classical and esthetic, as well as scientific studies. He needs to 
understand the face of nature and the principles, on which nature and 
art may be made to harmonize. He needs to understand man, his 
tastes and habits, and all the uses for which architectural structures are 
reared. The true architect is a creator, having to originate and to 
adapt. He needs both genius and common sense, and having to meet 
all wants, and to please all. tastes, he must be possessed of endless re- 
sources. Such a result as this comes only from an elevated and many- 
sided culture, such as can be found only in universities — general or poly- 
technic. For analogous reasons the new college ought not to undertake to 
make professional chemists — that is, men who make* it a business either 
to teach ch-emistry, to 'analyze ores, mineral waters, soils, agricultural 
products, manures, or technical products, to compound medicines, or to 
make original investigations. Simply to equip such a department as 
this would require a large share of the entire endowment of the institu- 
tion. Nor ought the new college to provide for all the wants of that 
class of agriculturists who not only desire a liberal education, but who 
wish to take a wide range among studies relating to agriculture, and to 
pursue those studies exhaustively. 

When we remember the ample provisions made for this high grade of 
instruction in our superior schools of learning, we need not regret that 
the inadequate endowment of our prospective institution will prevent 
its entering into competition with those, higher schools. 

Before, leaving this point, we may, without disparagement to other 
'well-appointed institutions, allude to the .fine development our State 
University has made in this direction. A large building has been 
erected and thoroughly furnished for the purposes of Applied Chemistry; 
the best advantages are offered in the department of Natural Philoso- 
phy; a professorship of Agriculture has been established, and a portion 
of the University grounds set apart for experiment and illustration. 
The agricultural department is based upon the Miller fund of $100,030, 
and this whole department of Applied Science may, and doubtless will. 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 25 

■ultimately afford the grand desideratum of a high grade school of agri- 
culture and the mechanic arts. 

4. If these views be correct, the proper sphere for the proposed col- 
lege is that of a middle grade agricultural and mechanical school — one 
■which teaches chiefly results and practical methods, and only so much 
of mathematical and physical science as may b.e necessary to render 
results and methods fully intelligible. The proposed farmer and me- 
chanic should go there simply, or chiefly,, to learn wliat there is in 
science and in improved methods and machinery to niake him a better 
farmer or mechanic. And the spirit and tendency of the institution 
should be, not to educate its students axvay from their vocations, but in 
and/o?' them — not to send them home -with a distaste for manual labor, 
• and a craving for some more literary or less toilsome pursuit, but to 

send them back with fresh zest for their .work, and a higher sense of its 
dignity and its capabilities, ajid with their own powers so strengthened 
that they may command a degree of success which they could otherwise 
never have attained. Any agricultural and mechanical school of the 
kind we are how considering, which does not have this efiect upon the 
mind of its students is a failure as regards its proper object, whatever 
success it might have as to numbers. Therefore all the studies and 
arrangements of the school should be carefully disposed so as to develope 
in the young farmer and mechanic a higher appreciation of his vacation, 
and a more resolute determination to excel -in it. 

But, as before remarked, it does not follow that because the design of 
tlie institution is special, there should be nothing taught there except 
strictly special studies. There is a certain degree of general intelligence 
and of mental culture, which are essential in order to enable the student 
to profit by the special studies, and to use them effectively after "they 
have been acquired. Hence some liberal studies are needed for their 
training and liberalizing effect, as well as for .the light they directly- 
cast upon the path of the student. The difficult task which now de- 
■volves upon this board is so to select among the many branches of study, 
and 'so to commingle the general and the special, as to produce the best 
possible result upon the student, and through him upon the material 
interests of the State. • 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION. 

5. Advancing a step further into the heart of the subject, we next 
■enquire what should be the studies of the new college. . Having here- 
tofore considered the field lying above it, we may now for a moment con- 



26. VIRGIl?riA AGRICULTURAL AND 

sider the field lying below it, and thus be able to define its position^ 
more sharply. It is perhaps sufficient to say, in general terms, that the 
field properly belonging to the existing public school system of the State 
ought not to be invaded on the one hand any more than that of the col- 
leges and universities on the other. Therefore it ought to be required 
that the jupil shall have availed himself of the provisions of the com- 
mon schools before being admitted into the technical college. The six 
elementary studies taught in these schools are an essential introduction 
to the studies of the higher school, and should be thoroughly mastered. 
There is reason to fearj however, that as yet comparatively few of our- 
country schools give as complete instruction in writing, arithmetic, geo- 
graphy and grammar as the college student ought to have, and therefore- 
it may be proper, at least temporarily, to include in our curriculum the 
higher grades of those studies. The student should be required to pass 
a good examination in spelling, reading, writing, elementary grammar, 
intermediate geography, and arithmetic to the end of decimal -fractions- 
Having now laid ofi" the ground on both sides of the new college, it- 
remains to arrange a programme for the college itself; and this is really 
the most difficult as well as the most important .part of this report. 

Before undertaking this task, the Chairman, besides conferring with 
the other two members of the committee, and fi'nding that their views 
harmonized entirely w^ith his own, put himself in communication with 
the Faculties of all the colleges in the. State. He gave them his views of 
what the new college ought to be, and asked theirs in return. He has 
heard from nearly all of them, and is pleased to find that the views of 
the committee are coidially approved by most of the representatives of 
these literary institutions. Of these, .the following gentlemen have 
furnished plans of instruction, viz: Professors Campbelland Allan, of 
Washington and Lee University ; Williamson,- of the Virginia Military 
Institute; Estill and Shepherd, of Randolph Macon College; Davis, of 
Roanoke College; Professor Martin, of Christiansburg ; and Colonel, 
Grabowski, of Preston and Olin. Letters containing suggestions have 
been received from President E well, of William and Mary ; President 
Atkinson, of Hampden Sidney ; Professors .Smith and Mallet, of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia; and Professor. E. B. Smith, of Richmond College. 
A communication has also been received from Colonel J. T. L. Preston*- 
of the Virginia Military Institute, proposing a course of action, which 
diflfers from the others, but is given on "his individual responsibility. 
Colonel Venable, of the University of Virginia, also wrote a letter to a, 
member of the committee expressing friendly sentiments. 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 27 

All these communications are filed with this report, and it is hoped 
that it may be the pleasure ©f the Board to hear them read. 

Your committee beg leave, however, to submit a plapi which differs 
somewhat from the others. It provides, as will be seen, for a three 
years course of instruction, or rather, for an introductory course of one 
year common to all the students, and two courses of two years each for 
agricultural and mechanical students respectively. 

Froposed Course of Instruction. 

FIRST YEAJl. 

Commercial Arithmetic. 

Book keeping. 

Algebra, through Equations of first degree. • . 

Engh^h Grammar, Elocution and Composition. 

Geography with Map Drawing. 

Descriptive Astronomy. 

Penmianship. 

Free Hand Drawing. 

Lectures on Physiology and Hygiene. Habits and Manners, the value of 

Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts to soeiety, etc. 
French or German. 
Farm or Shop Practice. 
Military Tactics. 

SECOND YEAR. 

Agricultural. Mechanical. 

Geometry, Plane Trigonometry and Geometry, Trigonometry and Mensura- 
Mensnration, Surveying and Agricul- tion, Descriptive Geometry. 
tural Engineering. .' 

Agricultural Physics and Mechanics. Physics and Mechanics. 

Agricultural Architecture and. Ma- 
chines. 

History and Literature, partly as a History and Literature, partly as a 
class exercise in Reading and Geo- class exercise in Reading and Geography, 
grapby. 

French or German. French or German. 

Mechanical Drawing. Mechanical Drawing. 

Essays. 



Daily Practice. 

THIRD YEAR. 
Agricultural. ■ Mechanical. 

Agricultural Chemistry and Geology, Analytical Geometry, 
with special reference to the soils and Industrial Chemistry. 
geological structure of Virginia. Mineralogy and Metallurgy, 



"28 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

Agricultural Botany and Zoology • Machinery, e. g. Steam Engines, Mill 

(withsimple veterinary arts). "Wheels and Gearing, Lathes, Planing 

Systems of farming, planting, gar- and Boring Machines, &c. 

dening, dairying, fruitgrowing, stock- Building and building materials, 

raising, &c., with special attention to Lectures on the' Resources of Virginia 

"the climates, crops, peculiarities and ca- as to Waier. power, Timber, Barks, Coal, 

pabilities of Virginia, Metals, Ores, Building Stone, and other 

Farm Economics including labor, valuable minerals ;' also on the existing 

accounts, buying, and selling, refiting, industries of Virgina. 

&c. • Drawing. 

Lectures on Government, Political Lectures on Government, Political 

Economy, Business Economy, Psychol- Economyj Business Economy, Psychology 

•ogy and Ethics. , , and Ethics. 

French or German. ■ French or German. 

Daily Practice. 

Your committee do not offer th.is as a plan of instruction to be fixed 

upon. by this board at present ; but only as an expr-essiou of the viev^s of 

the committee, with the hope that it may'please the board to approve 

• at least its" general drift. The working programme must be left to the 

faculty. 

.6. Concerning the professorial corps, it may be remarked that the 
success of such a' school as has been sketched depends more on obtain- 
ing the services of men having the peculiar qualifications needed, than 
upon all other circumstances combined. The cast and design of the 
school being different from anything now existing in our section of the 
country, we have among us no class of men trained in its special ideas 
and methods. Our only hope is to seek out men of education who are in 
sympathy with the objects of the institution, who have natural versatility, 
and who have had some experience in the direction aimed at.^ Mistakes 
in the selection of instructors would be so certainly fatal to the young in- 
stitution, that where there is doubt as to suitability, temporary" appoint- 
ments should be preferred to permanent; Among the officers, of course 
the most important is the president. His general duties will leave him 
but little titae for the instruction of classes. Beside the attention he must 
give to all the varied internal affairs of the institution, he should give 
much thought and labor to its advancement in public estimation, and 
especially in securing an enlarged endowment, and donations for spe- 
cial purposes. It is thus that the means for increasing the endowments 
and facilities for these applied schools elsewhere have been obtained, 
and their success assured. 

As to the size of the Faculty, that is of necessity regulated by the 
funds. Four instructors beside the president and the practical mana- 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 29 

gers might suffice for sotQe years to come, and even fewer might an- 
swer in the beginning — but an increase will certainly be wanted in the 
future. 

There will be no difficulty in securing the necessary means for carry- 
ing on the institution, if we can only succeed in creating such a one. as 
will really meet a great public want. 

MATERIAL APPLIANCES NEEDED. 

Having thus fully considered the scholastic department, we may now 
enquire what waiJma/ provisions will be needed to give full* effect to 
the teachings of the lecture and recitation rooms. It is obvious that 
in an agricutural and mechanical' college, the physical apparatus 
should receive a compartively large development. In fact, there is pro- 
perly no limit to its expansion, because the field covered by the curricu- 
lum is boundless, and infinitely diversified. So that, whilst valuable in- 
struction may be given with a moderate supply of apparatus, the 
advantages of the school will be improved in proportion as its illustra- 
tive appliances are increased. 

In this, as in everything else, .we must be governed by the funds 
available for the purpose, and there is nothing so important to any 
institution as to husband its means, and avoid debt. But it is well to 
have an ideal toward which we may aspire, however far we might come 
short in the beginning. And with due regard to both these considera- 
tions, w^e may consider first, what is desirable, and second, w^hat is 
feasible. 

The material appliances alluded to may be divided into such as per- 
tain to the lecture-ropm, and such as pertain to the farm and the shop. 
Proceeding in this order, we remark that in the mechanical department, 
beside the usual chemical materials, mineralogical specimens, mechani- 
cal and physical apparatus, and mathematical instruments and models, 
it is desirable to possess a large assortment' of models of machinery of 
all sorts, showing the actual applications of motors and mechanical 
principles, and illustrating those peculiar and often abstruse mechanical 
combinations and expedients which have to be resorted to occasionally ; 
also models exhibiting joints and splices, roof construction, &c., an^ 
where models cannot be obtained, drawings' and photographs thereof; 
also collections of wood's, stones, metals, clay, and other material used 
in building and manufacturing. - • • 

The professors in the agricultural department, besides chemicals, 
physical apparatus, mineralogical specimens and herbariums, would be 



.80 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

much aided by a class of illustrative models, such as are now made in 
great perfection in France and Germany. 

In the botanical department, models are now made of flowers, the 
cultivated plants, and grains, on a magnified scale, so that the lecturer 
can exhibit separately every part of a plant, or of a seed, so as to be 
distinctly visible to each member of a large class. There are also very- 
useful engravings and photographs of cultivated plants with their sepa- 
rate organs and structure. In addition to these are needed miscellane- 
ous collections, illustrating the materials, processes and products of 
agriculture and horticulture. 

The chair of Veterinary Science should be supplied 'with a great 
variety of instruments and models. Almost every part of a domestic 
animal is now illustrated by models, life size, showing the abnormal, as 
well as the natural condition of each limb and organ. At Cornell Uni- 
versity there is a model of a horse of life size which cost the mstitution 
nearly $1,000: It is constructed like a manikin, with every limb and 
organ complete, and yet capable of being dissected and exhibited in 
detail. Drawings are also used with advantage in this department. 

The department of Zoology generally has use for a large museum. 
In the entomological bjanch a full collection of insects, useful and inju- 
rious, is very valuable. 

The chair of technical agriculture is assisted by models of farm build- 
ings, fences, bridges, wagons, implements, and agricultural machines of 
every sort. Cornell has a collection of 187 models of ploughs, exhibit- 
ing all the forms of the plough from the earliest period of history to the 
present time. The collection cost about §400. 

The outside appliances of an agricultural and naechanical school usu- 
ally consist of a farm and a workshop. 

With regard to the latter, it being impossible to illustrate all trades 
at one institution, the best idea seems to be to exhibit the working in 
wood and iron, as the leading occupations. If complete, these shops 
would be well stocked with hand- tools and labor-saving machinery 
driven by water or steam, as well as materials for working up. The 
iron department is of course capable of indefinite expansion. The 
blacksniith's shop^ foundry and machine shop represent the three grand 
divisions of iron work — hammering, casting, and finishing. A large and' 
well-appointed shop is no small affair as to cost. 

A farm is the great theatre of agricultural illustration. Familiar as 
a farm is to every eye, one does not often see a farm properly improved, 
stocked and managed, as should be the case with a college faYm. Every 
feature should be a model of its kind. A grain and cattle barn should 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 31 

•exhibit the most improved method of housing crops and cattle, of feed- 
ing, grooming, and nursing the domestic animals ; the horses, sheep and 
cattle should be of breeds best suited to the State, and their, increase 
properly managed; the implements and machines should be in full sup- 
ply and of the best patterns ;' the crops selected, the enclosures, drain- 
age, manuring, ploughing, cultivation, and general management, should 
be unexceptionable. Experiments should be systematically carried on. 
Cheese and butter making, tree and fruit growing, gardening, plant 
houses, and many other things are worthy of attention ; and they will 
all be provided for in the course of time, if the college is so managed as 
to commend itself to the enlightened common sense of the people. 

But of course an extensive and complete establishment like the one 
described is beyond our reach at present, and the difficult task is ours, 
of determining what we shall begin with, and how far we shall attempt 
to go with our means. Prudence readily suggests that the expenditure 
should be rigidly controlled by the income, and that it would be better 
to attempt too little than too much. A few things well done .W'ill give 
far more value and reputation than many things poorly done. 

But the question recurs — What should be the first thing? The em- 
bracing of any opportunity which may offer for purchasing a suitable 
farm seems to claim the precedence over everything else. The next 
thing probably should be to prqvide necessary accommodation for teach-. 
ers and pupils; then comes an immediate demand for helps in teaching; 
after which the farm and shops may receive attention. 

Before dismissing the plan of instruction, there are two points on 
which something should be said, viz : — Manual labor, and military 
tactics. 

ma:nual labor. 

Manual labor by''students of technical- colleges is a subject on which 
there is a variety of opinions. A prejudice exist-s in the minds of some 
persons against the nianual .labor system, because some forty years ago 
the experiment was tried in several Amei"ican classical colleges of pro- 
viding workshops wherein students of small means might aid m paying 
for their education, but the plan was properly abando.ned as being an 
attempt to unite studies and labors which had no natural relations to 
each other, and to establish an .unsound system of economics. But in 
technical schools there "is a- direct relation between the studies and 
labors of the pupils, and the design is not economical, but educational. 

There are four sets of views on this subject actually put in practice 
in schools of this class : 



32 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

1. Some make no provision for manual labor. 

2. A larger number require from one to two hours labor daily, with- 
out pay of all the students. 

3. In perhaps a still larger number a certain amount of labor is- 
required, and extra work is allowed and paid for. • 

4. In others all labor is voluntary, and paid for. 

The subject is an .embarrassing one, and yet the following views seem 
to be established by experience a;s well as reason. 

In superior schools of applied science, in which the students are ex- 
pected to become engineers, chemists, arid such like, or to have simply 
the general management of farming, mining, or manufacturing property, 
the labor feature may. be wisely omitted. 

But in schools designed specially for those w^ho are to handle tools, 
actual practice should form a regular part of the course— actual labor- 
under skilled managers. To say that the manipulations and processes 
of the shop and farm may be learned at home, is to suppose that the- 
home processes are good models for imitation; which, if true, would in- 
dicate that there is no need of schools ; but home practice is just what 
needs improvement. There are not only improved methods to be- 
learned, but there is a training needed for the eye and the hand, which 
has great educational as well as practical value, and which should be 
conducted with as much system and careful supervision as instruction 
in penmanship and drawing. 

The most troublesome question is as to the regulations under which 
the labor should be performed. Should it be voluntary, or involuntary?* 
^e think it should be required of all without distinction, and at the- 
times and seasons should be as much prescribed as any other part of 
the course of instruction. 

The value of the labor should be taken into consideration in fixing 
the terms of admission, and not be paid for currently. The question of 
allowing and paying for ea:^ra labor is also, one of some difficulty. It 
seems to be proved that laboring even one or two hours a day on the 
farm may be made very useful to the student and valuable to the' insti- 
tution. 

It has been found more difficult to utilize the labor of students in 
mechanical work ; but the problem seems to have been solved at Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts. . In each of the great wood and iron shops con- 
nected with'the mechanical Institute -at that place, there are a number 
of stilled workmen who take charge of the students as they come in, 
find out by experiment what degree of skill each one has in the use of 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 83 

tools, and put him to work on some part of a job that suits his attain- 
ments. The pupil is kept working at that point of advancement until 
he becomes expert, after which he is promoted to a higher grade of work, 
and so carried forward according to his aptitude and industry, until 
before completing the course he may become a thorough master me- 
chanic. The work turned out of that shop has taken the highest pre- 
miums at competitive exhibitions. The finished work is all sold, and 
much of it is done by contract. The shops do not quite pay expenses, 
and yet the annual deficit is not large. 

MILITARY TACTICS. 

The military feature offers another embarrassing problem. There is 
great power in the military system, but as General Lee once remarked — 
" To be effective, it must be perfect ;" that is, not only complete in or- 
ganization, but backed by military authority and penalties. 

The act of Congress having been passed during the war, the clause 
requiring military tactics to be taught may have been prompted by 
some intention to establish the Prussian military system over the whole 
land. But if such an idea ever existed it has passed away, and there 
now seems no disposition on the part of congress to be exacting with 
regard to the military feature in these technical schools. In point of 
fact, the colleges which received the land grant have, with a few ex- 
ceptions, given no prominence to this feature, and would be glad to omit 
it altogether. 

Still, whilst the law exists, military tactics must be taught in some 
form. We do not understand that the term "military tactics" covers 
the whole ground of military science and tactics, but has special refer- 
ence to field evolutions. Therefore an opportunity given to the stu- 
dents for military drill would satisfy the law. Some of the disciplinary 
regulations might be usefully adopted, if it should be concluded to 
beard all the students on the college grounds. 

The terms on which students shall be admitted is among the first 
points to be decided. The Board is aware that the act of Assembly 
requires that a number of students shall be received without charge, 
corresponding with the members of the House of Delegates. It is for 
us to decide whether any charges shall be made in other cases. It is 
hoped by this committee, that the time will come when all our State 
institutions will be free to the people of the State. But this cannot be 
thought of at present for this institution, because its income alone could 
not furnish the needed facilities for instruction ; and yet prudence and 
3 



34 VIRGINIA AGRICULTURAL AND 

propriety seem to dictate the policy of making the fees very moderate. 
A certain amount of attainment, a good character, and a minimum age, 
say 15 or 16, will, of course, be required of applicants for admission. 

It is taken for granted that the salaries of regular professors will not 
be inferior to those received at other colleges, and will be paid partly 
from the annual proceeds of the -endowment, and partly from tuition 
fees. 

A LARGER INCOME. 

Whilst with proper management we can in due time open our doors 
and offer to the youth of the State a school well worthy of their patron- 
age, we cannot hope to accomplish all our wishes and purposes in the be- 
ginning, and we should cast about at once for an increase of income in order 
that the college may grow into a fully equipped institution. There is 
reason to believe that Congress will add to the grant already made, and 
unless our State proves to be an exception, our wealthy citizens will 
make donations ; but our main dependence is upon the heart of the 
people. 

We have this tremendous argument to back our appeal for an increase 
of endowment, viz : that this is the first thing the State has ever done 
in the way of collegiate education for the masses of her people, and even 
this is but the turning over of a gift from the Federal government. To 
neglect the special wants of the great producing classes is not only un- 
just, but exceedingly unwise. It is toward them the vitalizing power 
of technical education should be most studiously directed, and the 
forms of education should be so varied that its forces will take effect 
throughout the entire mass. 

The Land-Grant was a recognition by Congress of the claim of the 
producing classes for forms of scientific education really suited to their 
wants, and the action of the Legislature of Virginia in creating a sepa- 
rate college was a similar recognition. This action of our Legislature 
was as wise in policy as it was just in principle, and may be regarded 
as an indication of the intention of that body to provide whatever may be 
necessary for its support. We cannot suppose that our industrial classes 
will be left wholly dependent upon the bounty of Congress for the 
means of technical education. Day laborers being left out of view, 
farmers and mechanics constitute the great bulk of our population. 
There are in Virginia, by the census of 1870, 73,000 farms, which no 
doubt represent at least that number of farmers (including proprietors 
and tenants). We have not yet been able to ascertain the number of 
mechanics in the State, but supposing it to be one-third less than the 



MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 35 

number of farmers, we have something like 125,000 white farmers and 
mechanics in the State, which is within 25,000 of the whole number of 
white registered voters in 1869. 

These facts compared with our educational statistics show where lies 
the great field for technical education, and furnish a guaranty for the 
ultimate success of the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. 

WM. H. RUFFNER, 

Chairman, 

J. R. ANDERSON, 
W. T. SUTHERLIN, 

Covimittee. 

MEETING OF THE BOARD AT YELLOW SULPHUR SPRINGS. 

This meeting was held on the 14th of August. Present — Messrs. H. 
Black (Rector), Robert Beverly, John Goode, Jr., Jos. R. Anderson, Jos. 
Cloyd, John Cowan, D. C. Be Jarnette, W. A. Stewart, W. H. Ruffner, 
Superintendent Public Instruction, James C. Taylor, Attorney General, 
and Lewis E. Harvie, President • Virginia State Agricultural Society. 

Instead of the instruction contemplated in the action of the previous 
meeting, a Chair of English Language and Literature was established. 
The following faculty was then elected : Charles L. C. Minor, President; 
James H. Lane, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry ; Gray 
Carroll, Professor of Mathematics ; Charles Martin, Professor of Eng- 
lish Language and Literature. Military Tactics was assigned to the 
Chair of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry ; Modern Languages to the 
Chair of Mathematics ; and Ancient Languages to the Chair of Eng- 
lish. The election of a Professor of Teghnical Agjiculture and Me- 
chanics was postponed to a meeting to be held in Richmond on the 7th 
of January next; and Natural History was assigned to that Chair. At 
this meeting a Farm Manager will be appointed. 

Messrs. Anderson, Taylor, Sutherlin, Beverly and Ruffner were ap- 
pointed a committee to memorialize Congress in behalf of this institu- 
tion, and to ask for it a special donation of public land ; this committee 
to act in conjunction with any similar committee that may be appointed 
by the authorities of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. 

Messrs. Taylor, Goode, Anderson, De Jarnette, Cloyd and Ruffner, 
were appointed a committee to memorialize the General Assembly of 
Virginia to pay full interest on the bonds of the State held by this 
institution. 



S6 VIRGIXIA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGFF. 

The Eector reported that ^17,500 of Montgomery county coupom 
bonds had been delivered to him, and that the balance of the county 
subscription would be paid by warrant on the treasurer of the county. 

Mr. Cowan was made a member of the Executive Committee, and 
appointed agent of the college, and authorized to receive subscriptions 
in its behalf. 

The Executive Committee reported that probably a hundred and 
thirty students could be accommodated with board and lodging in the 
college building and in the town of Blacksburg ; that the price of table 
board would be twelve dollars per month ; and when a room, bedding, 
furniture and fuel are supplied, the price would be fifteen dollars per 
month. Coal abundant at fifteen cents per bushel. 

The Fasulty was requested to report a programme of instruction and 
government for the institution to the meeting in Kichmond on the 7th 
of January; and also to report on the necessities of the institution 
generally. 

The report of the Committee on Organization with the abstract of 
the proceedings of the Board, heretofore ordered to be published in 
pamphlet form, was adopted as the annual report of this Board to the 
General Assembly. 



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